Take Me Home
by LunaRocks
Summary: Times for Harry were hard, in fact they were down right horrific, but when Hermione has one of her smart ideas, thinking she can help, the consequences are inentirely different to what she had planned. A Severitus story. AU
1. Prologue

Prologue

It is an undeniable fact that Severus Snape, Potions Master and Professor at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry hated Harry Potter. So well known was this truth that not only the inhabitants of Hogwart's watched with horrified fascination, but also the rest of the wizarding world. Hermione had even gone so far as to point out to Harry the new found chapters held in her updating version 'Hogwart's: A History', that showed, in detail, the hatred and loathing between the two. The hatred stemmed from many reasons. One reason maybe have been that Snape's legendary ability to crush the self esteem and any spark of hope in Hogwart's students, and not a few fellow professors as well but not Harry Potter, who much to Severus' unimaginable annoyance and fury, seemed to be impenetrable. Another could be that Harry Potter, Snape's most hated pupil in the entirety of his teaching career seemed to be oblivious or not even care about Snape's various insults, no matter the severity. Everyone was watching for the day with rapt attention for the calm Harry Potter , saviour of the wizarding world to erupt into a huge burst of power that even rumoured that Voldemort couldn't withstand. Many students and professors were betting on how long it would take for the boy to snap. Little did they know that under the calm, impenetrable exterior, cracks were beginning to form.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Harry's time at the Dursley's was never a good, fun or happy. Family meant sticking together through the good and the bad, unconditional love and support and being restful in the knowledge that you could sleep at night without fear of harm. For Harry, the Dursley's pointed the finger at him, blamed him for their misfortunes due to his 'freakish behaviour'. Dudley would happily break the legs that physically supported him and Harry usually slept with one eye open lest Vernon try to strangle, smother, stab, poison or his latest favourite, put his old set of golf clubs to 'good use'. Harry had wondered whether Vernon had finally realised that he was crap at golf or whether he was becoming bored with the whipping, punching and breaking he usually favoured.

At the last night, before the end of year feast that Harry usually gorged himself on knowing that the starvation of the previous summer would likely resume, Hermione had pulled him aside and tied a thin leather strapping around his neck with a runic pendant attached, then Hermione quickly pushed it underneath his last clean shirt. When the cool metal touched his skin a warmth brewed throughout his body, from the tingling in the tips of his toes to the feeling of his hair standing on end. She didn't say anything, just pulled him towards the Great hall doors and sat him down with her and Ron. Ginny had moved away from him, he still didn't understand, or rather he hoped he didn't understand.

But now in the dead of night, the bars removed from his window since the Order had come for a 'chat' with the Dursley's and Hedwig happily tooting by the window where a cool breeze was cutting through the humid heat, the boy, the young man on the cusp of adulthood physically, the cusp of middle age mentally, slept soundly beneath the usual ratty thin blanket that had been his own since childhood, that had once been a blessing but now with growth a curse. But on he slept soundly, replenishing the body and mind after the latest ordeal at the hands of Voldemort after the Tri-wizard Contest, but this sound sleep left his mind and body too preoccupied to notice a whale sized man waddle into his room carrying a louisville slugger from the latest 'family vacation'.

The boy didn't notice the door open, the man come closer to his bed, but what he did notice was the pain when the slugger was swung down with 25 stone force into his stomach. Spleen ruptured, crushed liver, stomach and intestines.

Whilst fighting against through the pain of the first blow he was too unaware of Vernon's arm raising again and again; slowly, excruciatingly slowly the boys body came to a shuddering pace. His skull cracked, his collarbone smashed, both forearms that had been thrown up in protection snapped beneath the force of the weight of Vernon, along with his internal organs slowly ebbing away his life's blood. His mind in turmoil. Fight! Fight! Fight! But all the effort to defend himself just earned him another swing of the bat until it broke. Harry sighed what little he could thinking the abuse to be over when the meaty fists of the Whale came crashing down onto him next.

When young Harry thought he could take no more, when the screaming voice within his head turned from fight, to run, Harry felt a familiar warmth spreading throughout his body with a strength that hadn't previously,happened. A pulse of light connected with Vernon, throwing him away from Harry, sending him to the floor loudly and unconscious. The light slowly swallowed Harry whole until he was no longer in the room, or town or even the county.

* * *

The noise in 12 Grimmauld place was steadily increasing with the shouts of the men and women inside and soon the neighbours would have been complaining had it not been for the numerous privacy wards and secrecy spells placed on the town house located somewhere in the London area. The impromptu meeting between the Order, the secret organisation set to rid the world of Voldemort . He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers the aptly named Death Eaters. Albus Dumbledore had called the meeting after hearing underground rumours of an attack set again Harry Potter and his relatives at 4 Privet Drive. The Death Eaters had planned to use the boys family to get to Harry but Severus complained that the boy was so pampered and adored by his family that there was really no point in having it investigated, pulling his precious time away from his Extremely delicate potions to look out of the the boy on a whim. He spent far too much time away from his potions already because of the brat as it was and he wasn't going to let a measly rumour take any more time and he had spent the last hour trying to get the Godmutt to realise this. Instead the words drawled out complacently by the potions professor ended up In the eruption of Black rushing toward the Professor, wand drawn and a curse at his lips that things started to get ugly.

Snape decided it was time to put the mutt in his place, mentioning that if the unlikely event something did happen and Harry was attacked by Death Eaters it would be entirely Sirius' fault for meeting him in the the known animagus form and slipping away to keep watch on the boy. But the boy hadn't been seen. Severus thought he was probably loungin on a sun lounger on a Mediterranean beach somewhere, but the mutt thought something was wrong. And even though Severus couldn;t admit it to himself, no matter anybody else, he was becoming more and more angered at the notion that Potter could be on holiday whilst the rest of them fought with their live in the balance to keep him safe and alive.

"Black", He spat out in disgust, "I am not prepared to risk everyone here on a whim! There is no tangible proof that the blasted boy was in any danger what so ever!" Snape sneered

"No, you're not prepared to risk yourself, ay Snivellus. You're a coward, a snivelling coward when we were young and with the growth of your nose, the growth of the cowardice has grown too" Black screamed back.

No-one in the room wanted to tell Black that of his voice got any higher he would start to sound like the banshee of a mother at the bottom of the stairs and the resemblance would be uncanny. But everyone could see the fury building in Snape, building rapidly at the humiliation so quickly that it had many shuffling back wards and others for an explosive proof area.

"You're problem, you greasy haired, hook nosed bastard is that no-one ever loved you, so you can't feel what we do for Harry. No-one loved you and no-one ever will and all of us can see that you can't cope with what he would sacrifice for Harry"

Black reached Mrs Black pitch and lunged froward towards Snape. But after years of practice keeping various Death Eaters away, Severus was quicker, finally letting himself use the spell he had developed with Black in mind.

"SECTUMSEMPRA!"

But before the cutting curse could hit it's target a bright light and a feeling of warmth and comfort came into the room and a corporeal body could be seen slowly forming. A hand outstretched reaching for Snape, a face barely visibly recognisable for all the bruising and blood, looking in relief a the potions master. A brief look of tenderness could be seen aimed at the professor before the curse hit. But not its intended target.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The room in which the light had shone so brightly, trapping the two people within, slowly receded until everyone in the room could see the fallen man. The fallen boy who had crumpled to the ground by the curse aimed for his God Father. The room stood in shocked silence. But no one was as quiet, as absolutely finitely silent as Severus Snape. But in the split second that everyone recognised Harry for who he was, they rushed towards him pushing Snape to the back of the room pressed against the walls. Everything that happened within the next few moments seemed to last a lifetime. The range of emotions spewed from Happiness that Harry was finally away form the Dursley's to mourning that he was in fact, what appeared to be dying on the harsh stone floor of the Grimmauld kitchen floor. The sight made a picture that those that saw would never forget any time soon. The boy splayed out on the floor, pools of blood slowly seeping from beneath him meeting those that had started to appear through the rags that covered his chest and legs. The only part of his body that seemed untouched by harm was the outstretched arm that still remained. Reaching for the unknown. Molly Weasley, Poppy Pomfrey and Albus Dumbledore all pushed to the forefront of the fray, hoping to all give some assistance but really the only thing Harry needed at that moment was a miracle.

Poppy pushed to the front, thrusting her wand at the almost lifeless body of the Boy-Who-Lived, all the way quietly muttering and shaking her head. She scanned his head and gasped, causing the rest of the group to crowd around further. She ignored everyone still and carried on her job, scanning the rest of his body, the scanned pictures playing in her minds eye showing the damage that had been reeked. She turned to Albus as the most powerful in the room and ushered her between herself and Molly Weasley who was sobbing from the bottom of her heart.

"Albus, I need help" Poppy's voice shook as she whispered to the man. "I need you to help to external healing, I need someone with more training, I'm just a school nurse, that damage is horrific" She took and deep breath and lowered her voice once again until it was almost inaudible.

"I don;t know if he's going to make it, Albus" Poppy's head bowed and tears could be seen trailing silently down her powered cheeks unchecked.

"Poppy, you are more than just a nurse, you are a miracle worker, I have faith in you" Albus comforted Poppy and turned and stood and looked Snape in his blank, shock ridden eyes, "My boy, I suggest that you ready your potions, the strongest you have." But as he said it and it registered in Snape's mind, Snape saw that Albus' usual twinkle had been lost. And worry and grief had been handed over in it place.

Snape billowed from the room, and no-one took any notice as he moved swiftly towards the potions lab that Snape had installed in Number 12 since the Order had been established here. His mind was in turmoil. The blinding light had covered much about the boy, all Snape had known was that a figure appeared out of no-where into an apparation free zone, that the person between himself and Black had reached out to him with his eyes full of hope, only for the light to recede and a dullness replace the hope with nothing. And it was the nothing that was causing Snape to ache. The same eyes as his mother, and he wondered whether Lily had looked like that. But what was foremost in his mind was that he had cast a spell and hit a student of his. A hated, despised and loathed student but nevertheless a student. And the student looked like he might not pull through. He Severus Tobias Snape had vowed to never become his father, to never lift a hand or wand to a child under his care and now he had failed. He had failed to keep his vow.

With this self loathing seeping into every cell in his body the man only pushed himself further to brewing the potions needed to survive. To revive. To ease the pain and heal the broken skin and bone.

* * *

Whilst Snape had been reproving himself and pushing his ability to perform potions miracles to the limit, Poppy and Molly along with the care of a medi-witch that they had within the Order and therefore could be trusted with this most secret endeavour, moved Harry upstairs to his room with the most precious of care. The three women gently spelled his clothes away, save his underwear and covered him to the waist to begin the healing, they came across a necklace of thin leather strap and a runic pendant but none of the three could remove it, no matter the charms they used and in the end they gave up trying knowing they had little time to waste whilst Harry's life was left in the balance. The medi-witch took possession of healing Harry's smashed skull, and Poppy worked relentlessly and all the internal bleeding that she found. Molly was left with the duty of comforting the unconscious Harry and healing any scrapes.

Whilst the medi-witch was successful in her work and Harry's skull was healed properly and slowly bandaged up to prevent any further damage whilst the bones hardened and became that of a teenager, instead of the new bones of a small child, Poppy was struggling against the internal injuries that seemed to appear one after another. When she thought she had caught a hold on one bleed another opened or was discovered. It was almost as if Harry had had so many healing charms put on him that his body was becoming saturated. What again was alarming was that the pendant was heating up and the cuts and gouges from the curse that Severus had sent were becoming red. Not with blood but with the look of infection. Poppy worked herself into an exhaustion, only stopping when she could feel her own energy and magical levels depleting enough to cause herself harm.

Just as Poppy was beginning to despair of ever getting Harry whole again, Severus came striding into the room carrying a crate of potions in vials the size of his hands. He had always thought that there was a time for small vials and a time for large and in this case they needed as much power as they could get. Poppy quickly brought Severus up to speed with her prognosis for Harry and Snape once again felt the unnatural feeling of guilt and worry mixed together into something altogether unrecognisable. As Poppy was explaining the internal damage that had been caused prior to his arrival at Grimmauld Place, it was becoming increasing clear that while Harry may have been dying previously, due to the 'Sectumsepra' that he himself had unwittingly thrown at him, he was now on the verge of irreversible damage and death. Ultimate death. Severus Snape had nearly killed Harry Potter Saviour of the Wizarding World. And the only way that could save him was by the counter-curse that only Severus had memorised. Whilst the medi-witch took over the treatment of the internal bleeding, Snape quickly countered the curse and started pouring the additional pain, replenishing and Healing potions down Potters throat.

As he started massaging the boys throat to ease the passage of the potions, Snape came into contact with the necklace that those present had tried, and failed, to remove. But what concerned Snape, if he could admit that what he was feeling was even concern, was that the runic pendant now seemed to have melded into the skin covering Potters manubrium. He gave up trying to remove it as he saw the boy beginning to stop breathing due to the blockage of potions lodged in his oesophagus.

But as the potions moved down into Harry's stomach and spread throughout his body, combined with the muttered counter curse, Harry's body began to heal.

* * *

For what had seemed days the Order's Headquarters were buzzing with people coming in and out trying to find out whether Potter was going to live or not. The Daily Prophet had done a number of pieces in the last three days on the mysterious disappearance of the Boy-Who-Lived from his muggle family home. What they didn't know was that he had been taken in and had been fighting for his life ever since that fateful evening.

But what had become clear with every _scourgify_ and bath that they gave Harry was that the necklace was getting in the way of vital work that needed to be done at a moments notice should Harry's body start to fail as it had numerous times since he had arrived. No-one that was present could remember ever seeing Harry with the necklace before and were wondering where he could have got it. The charms around the pendant, the Rune that no-one could seem to define and the appearance of the thing itself caused Poppy and Molly to wonder whether it had been a present from someone just before he had left for the summer.

After hearing the theory it was decided that the Granger's and the rest of the Weasley clan would join everyone at the Headquarters, which seemed to be a good thing all round as the almost hourly owls from both Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were becoming a menace to everyone concerned. It took barely a ten minute window after to portkeys were sent before the cries of the youngest male Weasley and Granger could be heard from the hall way downstairs all the way up the four floors to Harry's room. Shortly after dropping their belongings unceremoniously in the hall way, speeding stomps could be heard ascending the staircase and the door of the room flung open with a hysterical Hermione and Ron standing in the door way.

The occupants of the room, Poppy, Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Sirius, Minerva and Molly were taken aback by the noise after the silence of the room previously but even more shocked by Miss Granger running across the room and throwing herself at the prone laid boy, sobbing uncontrollably into his barely moving chest. Ron moved right behind the girl and smoothly lifted her off of the boy , reminding her that he couldn't breathe properly and with as much diplomacy that the Weasley could gather told Hermione that using Harry as a mattress probably wasn't the greatest of ideas. As Ron was pulling her away slightly, Hermione again shocked the group of adults by automatically reaching for his neckline and tracing the pendant to where it lay firmly affixed to the skin of Harry. The oval shape had merely dropped itself into Harry, neither scarring him or causing him extra pain and when Hermione felt it come away from his skin she left out a breathe that she hadn't known she had been holding.

Almost under her breathe she muttered "Thank Goodness it worked, at least partially". At this every adult straightened and if they hadn't been giving the girl their full attention previously they were now.

Dumbledore rose from the group and crossed to place a hand on Hermione's shoulder, pulling her gently around to face him. "Miss Granger, do you know what that necklace is? Do you know what I does?"

Hermione looked around her at some of the strongest and most powerful wizards and witches she had ever met and met their gazes with confusion. "You mean you Don't?" When they all shook their heads in disbelief Hermione calmly told them that it was a protection portkey that was ancient in origins that recalled family members who were in harm to their kin.

"It brings them home, Professors, it takes him back to his family. I managed to manipulate it quite easily if I may say so, so that it would transport him to his father, To Godric's Hollow. I've been visiting there all through summer making sure that Harry hadn't needed to use it. That the Protections hadn't needed to be used as we feared that they might. But I can't understand he was supposed to go to his father. He was supposed to go to the Potters graves. Instead he came here." Hermione slumped back to sit on the end of the bed again, dejected that all her hard work had gone to waste and hadn't worked after all, or rather not as it should.

Dumbledore patted her shoulder and softly commanded that she tell them how it was supposed to work, the twinkle back in his eye as if he knew what was to come.

"Well I found this old tome in the back of the restricted section that dealt with old wards and portkeys that could be activated by harm inccured by the body. I started looking after last summer. We kept seeing Harry come back to school weaker, skinnier and more bruised and scarred. No matter how much trouble he went to to hide them, we always saw them, and he tried so hard. So I used the restricted section as I had been searching the ordinary books for years for a solution that could get Harry out of situation in which he couldn't get himself out of." Pausing and looking up she saw her Head of House, Minerva McGonagall raise her eyebrow at her commenting on the use of the restricted section. When Hermione said she had a note from Lockhart from second year without an end date, to which many in the room muttered epithets that Lockhart could and would never dream would be aimed at his godlike presence. Dumbledore motioned for Hermione to continue.

"So, I finally found on at Easter this year and it took up until the moment I gave it Harry to complete, but it;s malfunctioned."

"How has it malfunctioned, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore's gravelly, grandfatherly voice asked with the twinkle set firmly in his eye.

"Well he was supposed to be transported to his parents graves, it was Supposed to transport him so that he faced his father!" Hermione huffed in frustration at her failure being dissected in front of her professors and idols. But none of them were listening any more. Everyone had turned to the Potions Master that had formally been leaning lazily against the door frame to Potter's en-suite bathroom. At hearing this tale though, a sick sense of dread seemed to fill him and all faces turned to face him.

"No, not possible!"


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Everyone in the room was paralysed. Some with shock, other with horror or in Albus' case, bubbling with laughter. They all however stood staring at Snape who had uncharacteristically backed himself into the corner nearest the door.

"No! No way is that brat mine. Granger said herself that it was faulty" Snape gasped out.

"My boy, the pendant is real and working, the power he must have created and expended to carry himself to his 'father' is immense, he went through his blood wards, the Fidelus charms of here and Number 4, and also the apparation wards of this very house to get to you" Albus' eyes were twinkling so madly that Severus was starting towards what Dumbledore was on Crack laced Lemon Drop perhaps?

During the debate as to whether the pendant had worked or not, Hermione in indignation that her work be faulty in any way pulled a book from her robe and deposited it magically on the table at the bottom of Harry's bed. With a ridiculously flamboyant flick of her wrist, the book enlarged to the size of the table itself and opened to the page in the question.

Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall raised eyebrows at the blatant use of magic whilst outside of Hogwart's grounds. In return Hermione herself just raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the table/tome and the two, along with Severus moved towards it. Severus faster that all of them.

Quickly scanning the pages and his face grew paler and paler until he looked a ghostly representation of his former pale pallor. His face lacked any pigment at all. But all of a sudden a strange sort of half smile appeared on his face triumphant.

"There! Obviously this part went wrong. It would cause the adverse to happen. The opposite in fact. He would be transported to that which he most feared or hated. And that hatred is definitely in my honour"

Standing back, his shoulders wide and his face smug. The others just faced him with varying degrees of disbelief. Hermione stepped off the bed and stalked to the book, pushed Snape out of the way and pointed to where he had his hand.

She turned around to face the potions professor with a look that took him aback and brought all his Occlumency training to the front to keep his face blank.

"Done. Perfectly." Two words and the tiniest movement in Snape's hand that shook gave him away. Facing the others again, "I won't believe it until I have brewed a Paternitus Potion" Snape couldn't help but wonder whether he already believed and even just a little hoped that he had a son, that Harry Potter with Lily's eyes was his son.

"Well, hurry on with it then my boy" Albus patted Severus on the shoulder. Setting Snape fleeing **cough** billowing from the room.

* * *

"Well that's all well and good but Harry's life is still in the balance. We've healed the cuts and crushed skull but with Severus' Counter curse he potions are only just taking affect" Poppy stated

"All being well the potion will take effect but we're both worried about saturation" The second Medi-Witch Barnett said with frustration.

"Well it's not as if he's had so many bludgers to the head or quidditch accidents that the potions and healing charms could have reached that point. We all know that he's had his fair share, but surely he's not had **that** many?" Minerva wondered worriedly

Hermione coughed obviously and brought the attention of the worried faces towards her and she looked at them all expectantly.

"Well excuse me for pointing it out to all of you but Harry **is** incredibly powerful" She paused looking around at the blank faces, "And he apparated himself, inside a Fidelus, out of blood wards and into and warded Order of the Phoenix, all whilst under the age of seventeen, without full power" She paused again, looking incredulously at the most prominent adults in history; Dumbledore, McGonagall, Pomfrey, Barnett and Sirius Black and Professor Lupin who had slipped into the room as Severus had fled it.

"OH Come ON, he spends his summers being physically and mentally abused, starved, beaten and I truly suspect worse and he 'magically' comes back to Hogwart's as normal, albeit skinny and shorter that he should be. Am I making any sense to ANY of you?"

Sirius blew out a breath and reached forward to smooth Harry's messy Midnight black hair down and turned toward Hermione. "He's been healing himself hasn't he. He's been doing it for as long as he can remember, since he was a little boy. A boy who needed his father." He stepped back letting his hand drop from Harry's head.

To say that Sirius was shocked at the revelation that seemed to have occurred, and he too couldn't fully believe it until he saw the Paternitus tests, was an understatement, but he had to be honest with himself and look at the facts at hand. Harry was born prematurely. Lily and James had married quickly with no signs of an impending marriage on the cards before.

Lily had been with Severus before. Even he could put the pieces together. Lily liked James but they had never loved one another other than as siblings. James' chasing Lily had all been but a rouse to stop people finding out about his other relationship.

Sirius blinked as everything came into focus. He looked around at the people around him. Albus' eyes twinkling madly, Minerva's eyes grave and Remus' looking guilty. He couldn't believe what was going on around him. The revelation of Harry's birth.

"Where the **Fuck** is Snape?"

* * *

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews I've had so far! But I also want to apologise for the delay in posting, I had to go into hospital to have an operation and I've only just 'gotten out' this afternoon. Hope you all keep reading and feel free to review what ever needs to be said; good or bad I appreciate the comments... well unless they are personally insulting then I get sad face :)

Also THANK YOU to my Beta/brother Mortalfe!


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It took several days and when the days started becoming weeks everyone that gathered daily around Harry Potter's bedside became more and more sick with worry and grief. The scars, the years and years worth of scars had been removed, any blemish of torture, pain or otherwise was gone. His blood was also replenished, his wounds were healed, his skull was fixed. To all intents and purposes he was well except that he wasn't awake. It seemed as though he was sleeping. The sleep of death, but sleeping none the less. Pomfrey, and Barnett had come up with a few ideas considering Harry's massive expenditure of energy into it and they we re hoping that he was just recouping. But that was all it was. Hope.

In the middle of the nights when no-one could hear him, see him or pester him with inane questions, Severus Snape moved swiftly and silently, dreading that he would disturb the still midnight air, and make noise enough that someone would catch him repeatedly going into Harry's room. He closed the door and cast a Silence spell to cover the room, and sat beside the boy. He reconciled with himself that even after the large possibility that it was true after Black's rant, that Harry was his son, he still had years to make up for. He had after all thought the boy a pampered prince when in fact nothing could be less from the truth. He was a pauper in the muggle world, and an unwilling hero in the wizarding world. To put it straight, Snape believed that Harry, in his state of slumber, was waiting. Waiting for the world, his world, his friends and family to act, for him to finally feel like he has a place in this world instead of being pushed and pulled from muggle to wizarding worlds that treated him as polar opposites. Snape was beginning to wonder whether Harry knew what was going on, whether he was waiting for the biggest news of his life. Of whether or not he was Snape's son, and therefore had something to live for in what he would consider a very blank world. A dark and light world, with no reprieve between the two to fit into.

Snape clutched Harry's hand a little tighter, and bent down to whisper in the boys ear,

"You are Lily, you are not James, you have shown through the years that you are of Lily, a precious flower to be grown tall and confident, to be beautiful and strong. Whether you are my son or not I don't know, but the strength from within you cannot be denied. I would gladly have you.". He moved away from the boy's bed and his fingers slid from the boys. Exiting the room and cancelling the Silence Spell, he saw no-one, but a pair of twinkling blue eyes shone through the dark, and a soft sigh could be heard.

* * *

Since Hermione's little burst of rebellion, she had been nothing but studious whilst staying at Grimmauld, well all except venturing so far as to creep down to the basement to see how Snape was coming along with the Paternitus Potion and if she could help, it seemed he was about half way through the process, but then as brilliant as Hermione had to admit she was, even she couldn't brew this one. She could barely read or decipher the instructions, so she did the most unnatural thing she had ever done. She asked no questions, raised no hands and kept quite whilst slowly backing out of the basement laboratory without a sound.

* * *

A/N I am so sorry for the wait and the abysmally small chapter, however I felt that there had to be some filler between two sections of the story that I have plotted to come. Another reason being that I am still recovering from my Op and it's taking a while to get back straightened out. Thank you again to my brother/Beta Mortalife.

Thank you all for the reviews I've had so far and don't forget to review again, whether it be to comment on the good, the bad or the ugly. It really is true what they say about reviews feeding the writer. :)


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: It has been pointed out to me that I haven't put a disclaimer up, I would have thought it would be obvious that I don't own anything Harry Potter related because I am writing on a 'fan'fic site ( ;p) but never the less here it goes:

"I, LunaRocks, DO NOT in anyway, shape or form own any rights to Harry Potter, they all , sadly, belong to J.K Rowling who created the world of HP, to show for it she is now richer than the Queen, as I am obviously not". :)

* * *

Chapter 5

"Severus my boy, you have to leave this room for more than midnight strolls. We are becoming concerned about you my son." Albus' husky voice could be heard from the top of the stairs that led to the basement.

"Albus I may be a lot of things, but a boy I am not." Severus took a deep breath and leant forward against his brewing bench to stretch his back, shoulders and arms. "I cannot, Albus, leave this room until I finish this potion. This potion is the turning point in so many lives. It could change so much in so many lives. It could destroy the dreams of so many, it could destroy a young life, one that would not wish this on his worse enemy." Severus uncharacteristically sniffed before moving to face Dumbledore through the darkness. "We need the truth Albus, and me deviating from this room, is just prolonging the inevitable."

Albus moved down the stairs, his footsteps soft against the worn oak, his robes rustling smoothly behind him as he came to stand in front of Snape. Putting an aged but powerful hand on his shoulder, Albus squeezed and this caused Severus to raise his head from it's bowed state,

"I know my boy, what you are going through right at this moment, I know the secrets you thought were hidden. I have done since the moment you stepped through the doors of Hogwarts and sat on the stool in the middle of the Great Hall, with that barmy hat on your head. The secrets you have tried and succeeded to keep hidden will remain so until you see fit to tell the world." Severus' eyes widened in shock and he tried to take a step away from the man that had become almost a father to him as much as his own father had before his death.

"How?" He gasped,

"I have my ways, my boy, but what you now have to concern yourself with is that you complete this potion correctly, so that instead of lives being changed for the worse, they change for the better. What you have to give to that boy, what you have to give anybody that you let within the walls that confine you're heart , is immense and whether he is or he isn't your son shouldn't make a difference. You loved Lily. You loved her with every ounce of your very being, and Harry is half of that at least. You, my boy, can complete him whatever the results of that test maybe. Use that which is yours to use to heal the boy, son or not. You have it in you to do so much for him, and I truly believe that it will heal you too."

Albus moved away from Snape and took a few steps back so that Severus may take a few deep breathe to contemplate what he had learnt. When Severus looked stable, Albus smiled his trademark smile and his eyes twinkled with renewed vigour and he moved swiftly but quietly again from the room.

Snape sat with a heavy thump onto his bench chair, and laid his head into his crossed arms, absently waving his hand over the potion to put it in stasis whilst he was unable to keep close eye upon it. Albus knew his deepest secret, one that had never been uttered, murmured or even rumoured about. The closest guarded secret he had ever had since his mother and father died when he was aged 11. Albus knew and hadn't said a thing through all these years. Some days, even he himself forgot about it. He became a potions master so that the power he had wouldn't become common knowledge, he had hedged through schooling averaging himself so as not to draw attention that could lead him into so much hassle. And now should this potion prove Harry himself to be his son he would have another to bring into the circle, to know the secret that he had kept and thought only himself to have known. The number would rise to 3 until the time when as all secrets tend to be, it becomes known to all

Straightening himself up and pulling himself until he was standing once again, he brushed a hand over the solid steel cauldron and the potion began to bubble once more. In a few days, hopefully, he would know the truth. Whether he had a son he could cherish and take away from the harshness he had already seen and felt at such a young age and who had experienced the worst and who would lastly inherit everything that he was and would become, or a ward he could treat as though he was a son, hopefully with the boys blessing, and who may never have to face the added pressures that a biological son would have to. Either way, Albus' words had spurned him on, seeing the boy as he was and had been, other that what Severus had thought him to be, had caused him to have a swift change of heart.

* * *

Later in the evening of the day that Severus thought would cause his world to come crashing down, he stood as he had come to do, outside the room that held The Boy Who Lived. Hesitating before he made his way into the room, he leant his head back against the door frame and blew out a breath, turning towards the door so that his forehead connected with the door he was to open in seconds, with his hand touching the door handle, he became aware of a presence behind him on the stairs to the next floor.

"You know if I do this Albus then the whole of the wizarding world will know. That Harry will be connected to me, even if he isn't my son, that the choice of his life is taken away from him once more? You realise this I am correct, Albus?" His hand still touching the door handle, Severus turned and faced the man who sat on the second to bottom step.

"I realise that Severus. I realise that once again you yourself are being forced into something you might have never thought of doing, that your life is changing because of this also. Harry will live because of this however and you will _Learn_ to live." Albus pulled his years worn body up fro the stairs and walked toward the man and opened the door for him. "I am here to help my boy, I wouldn't expect you to go through this alone, this ritual expends so much energy that you need to be watched also." He smiled lopsidedly and he preceded Snape into Harry's room leaving Severus to let out another deep breath and follow.

Harry lay out on his back unmoving as he had been for the past two weeks, his thin, frail body laid out straight, his black hair forming a halo around his head and the bed sheets smoothed over his bare chest that moved slowly up and down, the only sign of life. Severus moved past his mentor and the man he considered his father in many ways, and sat on the side of the bed facing Harry. He moved his right hand unsteadily to cover the young man's hair feeling the silkiness that would forever remind him of Lily's. His eyes were caught onto the runic necklace that Hermione had made him to wear to protect him from what no-one else knew, the pendant still firmly embedded into the skin but not irritated or sore, and a small smile crept onto the man's face.

Moving back on the bed and feeling Dumbledore coming up on the other side of the bed to him, Severus moved his hands to rest on the boys forehead and above his heart, to symbolise the rational and the emotional being of the person and the protect that Severus offered him in the future would be both. Albus moved and sat on the bed also, putting a hand on Harry's head and the other on Snape's shoulder lending him the reassurance that would carry him through.

As Severus begun chanting, a golden light sprung forth from his heart that circled Severus' head and body, that warmed him in a way no heating charm ever would and begun moving rapidly around the room gathering speed at an alarming pace. As the chants grew louder and more strings of Latin were banded together by the sheer force of Severus' strength and power, strands of Scarlet Red, Emerald Green, Royal Blue and stunning vibrant Yellow begun to emerge from Severus' heartstrings. The colour began moving around the room spinning around each other in a breathtaking dance of light, colour and sound, they began to gain speed but to travel in the opposite direction to the golden string. As the chanting reached a crescendo, the beams of light and sound crashed into one another, twisting and turning so that they could never be undone, creating a ball that dropped and crashed through Snape's hand into Harry's heart to mix with the boy's very core. His spirit.

Severus and Dumbledore were increasingly enthralled with the ritual, the binding of Harry and Severus, that the noise they were generating was unnoticed. They didn't hear the sounds of others gathering on the opposite side of the door, or the pounding of Sirius and Lupin to be let in. All this went unnoticed as the pair sagged down as energy was expended, Severus life force was depleted, to force Harry's to become more as it should. The two men were too in awe of the growing patterns spreading from beneath where Severus' hand above the boys heart. The mark that Severus had above his heart was nothing compared to what the boy had. The last thing he noticed before he fell across the bed in exhaustion was the deep intake of breath, the movement beneath the boys eyelids before they opened slightly for them to close and the boy return to a healing sleep most unlike that he had endured so far. Severus looked over at Albus and saw the man beaming at him in return, and he smiled back as he felt himself lowered to the bed and let himself drift off into the golden warmth of this sleeps embrace.

* * *

A/N: HUGE apologies for the wait, as I wrote last time I had surgery and have been getting over that, mostly sleeping for the past few weeks lol, and so I pushed the fic to one side for a while, I shouldn't take that long again, but if I do feel free to send me a message or two to give me the well earned kick in the right direction. Review, good bad or ugly?


	7. Chapter 6

Take Me Home

A/N : ARGGHHH My Bad on the extra long wait but alas the big things called university and life have gotten in the way… on the upside its Christmas! So yeh I don't really have any other really good excuses that can justify the long wait but if anyone out there has been to university, especially universities in GB at the moment with the MAJOR upheaval then you know what I'm talking about! (so instead of revising for Jan exams I am relaxing and writing J )

And again I don't own anything but my laptop and large amounts of student loans, but if there is anyone out there that's willing to be Beta then Whoop, PM me and we can set something up!

Chapter 6

The silence was calm. The ones standing on the other side of the door had moved away after a burst of energy was released unknowingly by Severus and Albus as they had fallen to sleep, not surprising given the energy they had expended through the ritual. But as everyone else had started back to bed in the knowledge that the one thing they did know was that they didn't know anything of what had happened and didn't fully trust Snape to not kill Harry, they knew that Dumbledore was also inside the room and he wouldn't let Severus harm the boy who was like a grandson to him, there was one person who had returned to their room who was not satisfied with not knowing what had happened. They had only witnessed the burst of energy, the mix of colours that were the most powerful, that contained the most emotion, the most feeling, the most power a wizard could ever create.

Hermione reached over to light her room again, and slipped from the bed to move towards the door. She crept down the stairs and into the library, the library that had been growing since Hermione had taken to 'forgetting' to return the books to Hogwarts. Most, she had to admit, were from the Restricted Section, but considering how few people were actually allowed to read them and such, she couldn't really feel too guilty that they hadn't been returned. Madam Pince had other things to worry about after all, such as keeping Ron from playing and holding Wizards Chess and Exploding Snap tournaments in the Library, or Ron eating in the library or the fear of the Weasley Twins returning.

When she stood in the library she couldn't help but think that she had read about multicoloured lights before. Well it wasn't that common, spells, charms and enchantments were usually single blocks of colour not multi-coloured. The way they had exploded from the room meant she knew it was a powerful spell and that it would take a huge amount of power and she wondered traitorously whether Dumbledore had enough power as well as the Potions Master to achieve that kind of blast. Well that narrowed things down a bit. A blast of multicoloured light and extreme amounts of power needed to achieve it.

After spending three long hours looking up spells and flipping through the books she had gathered, she had made a list of possible suspects but she couldn't go any further until she knew what the outcome had been. Brushing a frizzy curl out of the way and behind her ear and tugging on the end of another in slight frustration, Hermione decided to fight against her nature and leave the rest of the research until later. She pulled herself up and dragged herself away from 'her' books and back to bed before falling uneasily asleep.

HS

In the room down the hall, a teenage boy was starting to glow. Warmth returned to his body after near death and pink fused into his cheeks making him look more alive than he had previously in a long long while. The two men who had been waiting for a sign of life had long fallen asleep, lulled by exhaustion and the expulsion of power used in the ritual that would take hours if not days to recoup. This was strange in the magical world because although, children especially, get tired quick, a persons magical core is connected to their life force they are irrevocably bound together and never can they be separated, therefore in the magical world exhaustion of the magical kind is rare because the persons life force usually keeps them going. However in the case of Severus especially, the ritual was to save a dying person and one that should connect the two together forever, and that type of magic no matter how powerful a person was always going to be draining. Saving someone was essentially giving them your own life. But that which happened between Severus and Harry was different, and nothing could change the world back to what it was before the ritual happened.

As the men continued slumbered beside the boy, neither noticed the twitching of Harry's hand, the moving of his eyes behind his eyelids and movement of his lips. But for Harry everything was right with the world. Throughout his life he felt he had been missing something, like he was without a vital limb but that he could function without it, but now in the space that Harry was in, the cloudy existence that he had been visiting for the last few days where it was cold and lonely, now made him feel complete, he felt like he was being hugged by the person who he loved the most. Who loved him the most. For the time he had been there he couldn't relax, he couldn't sleep he was in pain and felt lonely but now he felt complete, he felt at home for the first time, that he was wanted by someone.

HS

When Hermione woke she wasn't sure why, one moment she was having a perfectly acceptable dream about the latest Charm text that she would like and the next she was sitting straight up in bed, awake like she had never been asleep. The only things that were running through her mind were the words 'The Ritual'. She took a large intake of breath and released it quickly in shock, it had been staring her in the face, she had been looking for rituals that fit the profile of what happened, but she had never looked towards 'The Ritual' the first and only pure ritual in the existence of magic, the first ever performed and the prophesized last the would ever be performed. The passing on of a legacy, the legacy of hope that the magical world had been clinging onto for centuries, the coming of the leaders that had once been kings the ruled not just one magical community but all of them, and all beings. But she started to doubt herself, as Hermione sat and thought it all over, Professor Snape couldn't have performed The Ritual because the bloodlines disappeared centuries ago, it was rumoured that the four founders were descended from these kings but it had never been proven. Although doubt was coursing through her, she couldn't help but think that otherwise everything fit, it would make perfect sense, but what didn't fit or rather what made things more difficult were the questions that arouse within her mind, How could if Professor Snape, if - and that was a Big 'If' - he was a descendant have performed the ritual on Harry of all people with mutual dislike and incompatible genetics between them?

A/N : Yeh again, MY BAD on the super long wait :S But my bad time keeping skills does not give you a reason not to review :P x


	8. Chapter 7

A/N Hey guys and gals, thanks for all the really kind reviews I much appreciate them! For someone who finds creative writing difficult they are the spurn I need to keep me going. To the few that have expressed a negative attitude towards my writing style, well what can I say its not going to be pleasing for everyone is it? Your reviews are still welcome though for constructive criticism but I warn you I am doing an International Politics degree not creative writing although I'm sure proper politicians could easily do both! ;p

Chapter 7

The warmth that continued to hug Harry seemed never ending. There was no beginning in it in his existence and there seemed to be no end, but what did seem to be coming to an end was the fog that had surrounded him for sometime. Harry had started to come to terms with it, and even enjoy the anonymity of the fog after he heard voices calling his name and he just wanted to be left alone. He wasn't entirely sure where he was or really why he was there and couldn't even tell how he had come to be in the foggy place, but the warmth that surrounded him, not the sort that covers a person standing in the sun, but the sort of warmth that surrounds a person in a tight embrace from a loved one made him feel safe and secure and he somehow knew he would never be harmed here, and he liked that. It reminded him of a better time, a time he could hardly remember but was so cherished that it was kept locked tight in the very depths of his mind and never brought out, only tendrils of the original memory ever felt.

But as time moved in this space he seemed to be moving towards something, towards the voices, and if he was honest he wasn't sure he wanted to go back that way. The voices sometimes sounded angry and he was sick of angry voices, nothing good came of angry voices. But the other way away from the voices was quite but foggy. So as he was being pulled towards the voices he was glad to be coming out of the fog. All in all his feelings and emotions were all messed up, and that was putting things lightly. So he made a decision, to embrace the movement, to move with the tides and move out of the fog and towards the voices that had momentarily gone silent, towards the ever increasing sense of being embraced. And just as he thought the fog was never going to be lifted everything became clear and he awoke with an almighty gasp of breath.

And he felt, Alive.

HP+SS

Severus would forever remember the day that he awoke to the Emerald green eyes staring at him so intently as they were. Especially considering that he had thought he may have never seen them so alive and shining brightly, free of pain, as they were now. But in the pit of his stomach he also knew that today everything _was_ going to change, because he couldn't keep the truth from Harry, not now, definitely not now. Because even if Harry wasn't his son, they would be forever connected as such.

Bringing himself to sitting straight Severus began to feel the unfamiliar feeling of butterflies in his stomach just fluttering to get out. But he knew they wouldn't until he got everything out, to explain.

"Harry -" He began,

"Something has changed hasn't it Professor", Harry cut through him.

Taking a deep breath Severus continued, "It has Harry, It certainly has. I suppose it all starts thousands of years ago, but really this all begins about 20 years or so ago when I was at Hogwarts, My family has been going to Hogwarts since the founders brought it into being, and far before in the schools that the founders forefathers founded and so on, but my time at Hogwarts changed everything. I fell in love, with someone that wasn't viewed as acceptable by my family, we were thorough bred pure bloods, no hint impropriety anywhere in my lineage but I changed all that by falling in love with a Muggle born. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever, and will ever see again. But once I saw her in my first year I was hooked, I would have done anything for her, but she never asked me to. She was kind and loving and I adored her. And I eventually would have married her, and indeed at the end of our seventh year we did get married and by Merlin we were happy. But then in came my family and they made things difficult and eventually my wife ran away in the hopes that they would leave her alone, that the abuse and insults and the horror that I could only but try to protect her from stopped. And the next thing I know, she is married to someone else and a part of me died inside. But I got sucked into the darkness and before I knew it I couldn't even begin to win her back, I was too far gone, and nothing could save me or her. That year was the best and worst of my life, even to date", Severus stood up and moved towards the window to brace himself against the window pane, neither noticing that Dumbledore had awoken and exited the room quietly.

"I married her, I lived and loved her with my very being but my family was sworn to hate her, and they ran her off like a crowd with pitchforks, and she moved on, she married the man I hated and they had a child, a beautiful child with her eyes, and he should have been mine, but then my world came crashing down, and she died and my world became cold, and the child was sent away, far far away from me, where I couldn't even get a glimpse of it. When she died, everything changed, the darkness I was under and surrounded by didn't frighten me anymore, because I had nothing to lose, I had lost everything already, so I turned on it and started to make things right but on my own terms. And I succeeded, and everything became as normal as it could be with half of myself gone. Until yesterday when my world tipped upside down and back to front, You made that happen Harry."

Severus turned around and moved back towards Harry to sit on the side of the bed facing the boy, he didn't know if he could get to the crux of the matter, he wasn't sure if he could take the risk and put himself out there, but he knew that coming this far, dredging up the feelings that had threatened to crush him for the past fifteen years, it would be worse not to go on,

"The amulet that brought you here Harry, did Hermione ever tell you how it worked?" He let out a breath, "No, never, she just said it would send me somewhere safe, until she could get someone to come and get me, should anything happen at the Dursley's", Harry Settled himself back further against his pillows to get comfortable, and Severus waited until he was to continue,

"Hermione made it so it would send you to your father, she made it so you would be transported to Godric's Hollow where James is buried so that you would have somewhere safe to wait until someone could come and get you and bring you here, but It didn't work as she expected, it brought you here to begin with and it set off a chain of events I wish I could change because I didn't want you to get hurt, and I didn't want what I suspect to be the truth to be brought to the surface in these circumstances, and I certainly didn't want from myself and Albus to have to act, in ways I'm not even sure you're going to be happy with. There was a fight as usual between myself and Black, and the outcome was that you got hurt, you nearly died because of us and we both felt terrible, but I had to use knowledge passed down through thousands of years of my family to save you, and I did with the help of Albus but the consequences are that you will always be bound to me now, you are now my Heir, The Heir to the Wizarding world." Severus bowed his head, not wanting to she the look that would inevitably be on Harry's face. Reaching into his pocket he brought out the paternity potion that he had spent such time brewing down in the dungeon so that he could give Harry, and himself, the answers that they both no doubt would need at the end of this conversation, after the explanation.

" What you have to understand Harry is that the Wizarding world was once and to a certain extent is still ruled by Kings, but with the rise of democracy I suppose the need for an 'impartial' government was seen to be needed and the Kings just became a figure head, a constitutional monarchy as it were, just like the Muggle monarchy. But we have always always kept pulling the strings behind the surface, that is until recently when the current Prince wanted to just run away from everything because of what his duty had done to him, and his family." Severus moved the potions bottle around in his hands not knowing what he should do and continue with. Making the decision, he stretched his hand out towards Harry for him to take it.

"This Prince, it's you isn't it Professor? Everything has been about you, and this potion will determine how much it is about me as well? This is the paternity potion isn't it, because I turned up here and not in Godric's Hollow, the woman was my mum?" Tears could be seen swimming in Harry's eyes and Severus willed them not to fall, he didn't want to be responsible for that as well, he wasn't sure if he didn't think he could be responsible for making him cry as well on top of everything else that had happened. "Yes she was Harry, that potion will tell us if you are mine, you need only press your finger to the top and I will do the rest" Severus watched as Harry did just that and then he reached over to take the vial and do the same, pressing his finger gently over the top he felt the nick being made and watched as his blood circled Harry's. He shook the vial and watched, and watched, and watched. Until it turned blue, Royal Blue. And he let out a breath. Raising his head to see Harry watching just as intently and gazing into the eyes that turned towards him in expectation.

"I've been alone for so long Harry, so long even before your mother. I loved her with everything in me and when I lost her first to James and then lost her entirely to Voldemort and you with her eyes, the very windows to your souls. The depths of the pain I felt, I hope you never have to endure, a King only has one Queen, Mine was your mother and she gave me You, My Prince."

A/N: Reviews are much liked, they keep me going and updating. A big thanks to: bookworm19065, reader1writer1, DarkRavie, PhoenixGrifyndor, B00kw0rm92, mitremlap ( as always :D) and LIGHTNSHADOWS.

P.s I have been trying to upload this, but FanFiction says there is a problem uploading things at the moment :( sad face


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